Playing the Fool: Subversive Laughter in Troubled Times
The use of humour to disguise an intellectual challenge is an effective ruse, says Peter J. Smith
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Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn
Ayala Fader's Mitzvah Girls is a rigorous ethnographic study of the education of Hasidic girls in Brooklyn. It is entertaining and engaging, combining personal accounts and subjective prose with...
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Accident Prone: A History of Technology, Psychology, and Misfits of the Machine Age
Before reviewing John Burnham's thoughtful book, let us review the ÌÇÐÄVlog books editor. That lady suggested to your reviewer, a former RAF and airline pilot, that this book, Accident...
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The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy
Judith Weingarten delights in the life of a leader who tested Romans with his battles and intrigues
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Borderline Citizens: Women, Gender, and Political Culture in Britain, 1815-1867
Caroline Franklin finds a useful correction to misconceived stereotypes of Victorian women
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Ethics and Politics in Modern American Poetry
The modern academy’s Department of English has fractured the voice of modern American poetry: one voice for poems, another for discussion. T.?S. Eliot could moan about not being Prince Hamlet, claim...
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A very special lunch
One of the university's best-loved traditions was revived last week in the snack bar of Michael Gove College when some of our most senior administrative staff reversed their usual roles and spent...
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Offing the cap
Alan Ryan says Labour would be best off abrogating all responsibility for fees
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What are you reading?
A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers
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Leader: First, let's find out if it will fly
Before we commit to linking funding to impact, we should wait for the results of pilots to determine its feasibility
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From where I sit: A history of collaboration
James Cook and the Discovery of the South Sea, currently running at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, is one of the finest exhibitions I've ever seen. Ingeniously displaying some 600 exhibits - artefacts,...
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David Nokes, 1948-2009
A leading authority on 18th-century literature, who took his subject to a wide audience through television adaptations and acclaimed biographies, has died.David Leonard Nokes was born on 11 March...
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University of Oxford - Poetic justice
A new professor of poetry is to be elected at the University of Oxford, with the successful candidate scheduled to be in post in autumn 2010. An election was held earlier this year but the winning...
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Slash funding red tape to deliver real 'impact' 1
I note the following variously expressed views in your 10 December issue: i) the impact of some research is more obvious to gauge or imagine than others; ii) most research is likely to have an impact...
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Slash funding red tape to deliver real 'impact' 2
My colleague at the University of Sheffield Tim Birkhead (who I do not know personally) has highlighted a major problem in academia - grant application and reviewing processes. However, the solution...